A journey through technology and madness.

February 2010

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Eyes Wide Open.

mood: thoughtful

This entry was originally a reply I made to a comment from denmarkadonis. It got me thinking, though, so I figured I'd make it a real entry. The short of the comment was that 'Eyes Wide Shut' was a much better movie involving secret societies.

I agree with you about 'Eyes Wide Shut', as well. I personally thought it was a really good movie, despite the fact that it got a lot of bad popular reviews (from what I saw, most of the reviews by real film critics (as opposed to the opinioned 'review' pieces), film students, and real movie buffs were reasonably positive).

I think the problem came partly from the overblown publicity over the orgy scene (which I really didn't think was that bad, nor that big of a deal), and partly due to Stanley Kubrick's death.

I also think that a lot of people weren't sure what to make of it. I thought it was a beautifully filmed, directed, and acted movie. It was slow, true, but that added a lot to it, in my opinion. It allowed you to consider what was happening and think about the movie while it was playing.

All to often these days, movies require, and desire, no real thought. They just spoon feed a plot to you, if not shove it down your throat, and they work really hard to move fast enough that you never have to think about the plot. For a lot of people, thinking about the plot makes for a bad movie. They want mindless entertainment, and nothing more.

For people like this, 'Eyes Wide Shut' is not a good movie. 'Eyes Wide Shut' requires you to think about what is happening while it goes. It's not just a journey through time, where we watch and see what some people do. It's a journey through the mind of Tom Cruise's character.

As such, it is somewhat twisted, odd, and unusual. That's just the way the human mind is. Some of us are even twisted, odd, and unusual enough to enjoy it. ;-)

I could prolly go on a lot longer about this movie, but I'll shut up now. Got a different opinion about it? Share it with me. ;-)